Red Like Rosenthals
by Broshark
Summary: Ruby finds out Weiss is engaged! Or is she?


"Forty-eight… forty-nine… fifty!" Yang said with a cheer as she held the brush in her hand triumphantly. She was sitting down on the foot of Blake's bed, the faunus seated next to her and observing. "And that's all there is to how I keep my hair perfect!"

"That takes a lot of time, Yang," Blake said with a nod. "Do you ever… ever need help with-"

The door to the Team RWBY dormitory slammed open, Ruby quickly running through and slamming it shut as quickly as she had opened it.

"You guys are the worst!" she shouted at the pair, sniffling through tears. Her face looked like she had been crying long and hard, a very unusual look for their team's leader. She took a seat on the floor next to their bed. "Weiss has… Weiss said…." She stuttered over her words as she tried to hold back tears.

"Oh that bitch is dead," Yang said, hopping to her feet in an instant. She handed her hairbrush to Blake as an automatic instinct and let go, not even checking if the other girl caught it – she did. Stomping furiously, Yang swung the door open and was through it in the blink of an eye, the door slamming so hard that it was even louder than what Ruby had managed.

"So," Blake said awkwardly. Leave it to Yang to leave her alone with a crying Ruby. Once the blonde started seeing red it seemed like she forgot anything besides wanting to punch the target of her frustrations. Well, at least she wasn't Weiss. Leaving her to have to deal with Ruby alone wasn't the worst thing Yang was going to do to a member of Team RWBY tonight, that was certain.

"So," Blake said again, but still just as unsure about what to do as the first time. She slid off of her bed and wound up sitting next to Ruby on the floor, the younger girl still crying. She put one arm around Ruby's shoulders in a very, very uncomfortable hug, hoping that it would at least help. In response, Ruby simply cried twice as hard, and then suddenly grabbed Blake in a hug.

Unlike her attempt at a hug, Ruby's hug was at least three times as uncomfortable. Not emotionally, though. Emotionally it felt quite like how she imagined having a little sister felt. Being a shoulder to cry on. It was kind of sweet that Ruby felt close enough to do that, none of her other friends had ever done that before. Except Yang. But different. Extremely different. If she felt the same way for Ruby as she did for the blonde, she was certain that Weiss wouldn't be the only one suffering tonight.

No, what made the hug uncomfortable was that Ruby was squeezing with all of her might.

"O-ookay!" Blake finally said, patting Ruby on the back to try and signal her to loosen up her grip. And patting again. And again. Finally, just as she was starting to run out of breath and seriously considering using one of her shadow clones to escape, Ruby finally let up on the spine-crushing grip. Sucking down air like she had been underwater for ten minutes, Blake took a few deep breaths before trying to talk again. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Well…." Ruby said, shakily. "After you and Yang said that I should tell Weiss how I feel instead of keeping it all bottled up, I decided to do it…."

Blake frowned slightly. She couldn't believe things had gone so badly for the girl. When she had asked Yang and Blake to some 'super-secret don't tell anyone else or you're dead I mean it guys really' talk earlier in the evening, it seemed like things were going to turn out well. Both her and Yang could tell that Weiss enjoyed being… intimate… with Ruby. Holding hands, going past each other in lines, all sorts of minor things that caused contact between the two girls. And not just from Weiss, Ruby was pretty handsy herself. Hell, Ruby had used the excuse of losing in a board game to jump into the ice queen's arms, and all the snow princess had done in response was hug her back. Meanwhile, Weiss sometimes still went completely ballistic if she or Yang ever bumped into her in the hallway. All things considered, it was pretty obvious to the two partners that there was some chemistry between Weiss and Ruby.

So when Ruby had asked the two for advice on what to do, it seemed like a no-brainer that if Ruby just told Weiss how she felt things would be smooth sailing. Or so they had thought when they told her that. Admittedly, they didn't tell her to immediately jump up and run out of the room to tell Weiss at that exact moment, which she had done, but it was close enough.

"I have to apologize Ruby, I don't understand how I could have been so wrong. I never would have thought she'd say anything cruel to you when you told her," Blake said regretfully.

"I… she… she didn't," Ruby finally said between her tears.

"Huh?" Blake blinked.

"She didn't even see me! Stupid Jaune came up to her at the library and asked if she wanted to go on a date before I had the chance! GAH!" Ruby angrily threw a weak punch at the mattress.

"What? You mean she's going on a date with Jaune?"

"No!" Ruby shouted. "I wish that was it! One date with Jaune would make it so she would never be interested in boys ever again!"

"But then why are you so upset if she isn't dating Jaune?"

"Because… because Weiss… WEISS IS ENGAGED!" shouting her frustrations out, Ruby sniffled again and sucked in a large breath through her nose to clear up her nostrils.

"What!?" Blake asked, stupefied.

"Y-yeah. She…." Ruby took a deep breath to try and calm herself, slightly. "She told Jaune she couldn't go on a date because she was already engaged. And not just engaged, in… in love!"

"Oh…." Blake's ears pressed down against her head as she frowned. She had a much better understanding of how Yang always seemed to cave in whenever Ruby demanded something. Even when miserable she was so cute, like a shivering little puppy. If she planned on having anything serious or long-term with the blonde bombshell, it seemed like she would need to get used to giving the younger girl a shoulder to cry on. Especially since Yang wasn't here to do it. She shuddered as she thought about just what sort of throttling Weiss was getting right now. Above all else, Yang took being Ruby's big sister seriously, and Weiss had made the mistake of making Ruby cry. "Ruby, I'm so sorry."

"This sucks! I hate this!" Ruby kept on pouting. Blake knew Ruby didn't have a single hateful bone in her body, so she was probably just venting. Though even then she had to have been unbelievably upset if she resorted to even saying something like that. "I hate that I just stood there like an idiot while she told him how much she loved this guy! I hate…. I hate Reuben Rosenthal!"

Blake blinked, her body going rigid in an instant. If she made any movement, even the slightest tremble, she might betray her thoughts to Ruby.

No. It couldn't be.

But, thinking about it…. It HAD to be.

The more she thought about it, the more certain Blake was – and the harder it was for her to avoid reacting. Putting both her hands to her mouth to try and hold back her emotions, Blake failed miserably, erupting into laughter.

"It's not funny, Blake! Weiss is my partner and now I have to go through the rest of my time at Beacon knowing I have no chance with her! We're barely even in the second semester! That's three and a half more school years, Blake! So I'm sorry I don't think it's funny!" Ruby kept on cutely ranting while Blake couldn't stop smiling.

"Ruby. Ruby. RUBY!" Blake repeated, having to shout to get the younger girl out of her speech. "Think about it. _Reuben Rosenthal_. That's the most fake name I've ever heard."

"Whaaaat?" Ruby asked, dumbfounded.

"Reuben Rosenthal, think about it," Blake said. "Reuben. Ruby. Rosenthal. Rose. She's not engaged, she made up some guy to avoid Jaune always asking her out, and she named him after you!"

Slowly, wordlessly, Ruby's frown turned into a grin. And not just any grin, but one that Blake would have said somehow went from ear-to-ear. Leave it to Ruby to make such an absurd smile possible.

"Blake! Blake! Blake! She said she – she said she LOVES him! ME! I mean not me but the guy who is me not that I'm a guy but if I were a guy he would be – you know what I mean!" Ruby started happily chatting away. If Blake didn't know any better, she would have suspected Ruby shared her sister's semblance, as the younger girl was positively overflowing with warmth now. Not just figuratively, as the tears on her cheeks had almost completely evaporated already.

"Found her!" a shout roared through the door, which slammed open an instant later. Yang stepped into the room, eyes blazing red, holes all over her clothes, a few cuts that were still bleeding peppering her arms, bruises all over her skin, her left leg half-encased in a block of ice, and dragging something behind her. Ruby and Blake slowly lowered their gaze, realizing that the something in question was Weiss. Sporting two black eyes, sleeves ripped to shreds, a few undone buttons, and even more bruises than Yang, it was hard to actually recognize the ice queen. Both girls suddenly had found themselves grateful that they had never earned the blonde's ire to such an extent.

Unceremoniously, Yang dumped the girl onto the carpet of the room and closed the door behind her. "Okay Ruby, I think she's learned her lesson, nobody messes with my sister and gets away with…. Uh…. What are you guys looking at me like that for?"


End file.
